Thursday, February 18, 2010

Four Bells! -- A "Theme Thursday" Post

This week's Theme Thursday topic is "bell," and although there will be the usual creative approaches to the subject from the many Blogger-bloggers who've signed up, there's one thing which probably all of us will have in common besides (obviously) the "bell" theme itself.

More on that shortly.

My own slant on the subject is to give you some background info on one of the television kiddie show hosts I grew up watching in the early 1960s. And for once, I'll be relatively and mercifully brief.

I grew up in southern Massachusetts, and the majority of TV stations we of that era tuned to were based in Boston. One of the local personalities was a gentleman known as Captain Bob Cottle. When I watched him, Captain Bob worked for channel five, WHDH-TV, which was then a CBS affiliate... although in the early 1960s he also played host to Hanna-Barbera's Ruff & Reddy Show on NBC, somehow...

I collect whatever late 1950s & early 1960s New England kiddie show memorabilia I can get my hands on, and I have a few mementos from Captain Bob, including the two magazines shown above and a "Jasper" squeaky toy based on Captain Bob's puppet sidekick.

Oh, and I did manage to pick up one other item, a store display for a Captain Bob product...

Which brings us back to "bell." Like the bell in the upper left-hand corner of my sidebar. (Feel free to click on that, by the way.)

One of the Blogger-bloggers whom I'm acquainted with is a Canadian gent named Barry, who writes a blog called An Explorer's View of Life. Today, at two p.m., EST, Barry will be ringing a bell in accordance with... Well, let me quote from an earlier post on Barry's own blog:

High on the wall next to the exit from the Chemo Day Care Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital a bell is waiting for me. As I mentioned in my post a week ago Friday, there is a ritual at PMH that those patients completing their last treatment of chemotherapy, ring the bell as they leave.

Today is Barry's last treatment. But he won't be ringing that bell alone. Not exactly. Bloggers from literally all over the world have latched onto this idea, and in honor of Barry (and every other person who's ever battled some form of cancer), there will be hundreds of people ringing some sort of bell -- dinner bells, bicycle bells, bells supplied via YouTube videos, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera! -- or making some sort of noise, to show their solidarity.

Kind of inspiring.

And as for me? Well, if you know me at all, you know I wasn't satisfied with just the display for that "Ship's Bell" of Captain Bob's.

Yep, I tracked down one of those Captain Bob brass bells, in its original box, no less. And that's the bell that I'll be ringing at 2 p.m. EST.

That's right, this land-lubber will be ringing a ship's bell! Just for Barry. And if you read this post before 2 p.m., feel free to join us.

(And in case you're wondering, the "four bells" mentioned in my title -- if I understand the way these things work -- is how they used to mark the hour of 2 p.m. at sea.)

@Betsy: Somehow I had a feeling you'd chime in -- couldn't resist the "bell" pun today -- after I left that comment!

And for all of you Captain Kangaroo fans... I never thought of it that way, but I guess Captain Kangaroo, played by Bob Keeshan, was a "Captain Bob," too, in a way. When I first moved David'Z RantZ from Diaryland to Blogger two years ago, I would often recycle older posts, assuming practically no one had seen them. I even "backdated" some celebrity tributes I'd done, so there are a few of those that are listed as being posted before February 11th, 2008. You can go here if you want to see the little obit I did for Mr. Keeshan on January 23, 2004.

Believe it or not, in Baltimore we had Pete the Pirate. Lots of "aaarrr, matey!" and stuff, and he even had a real parrot perched on his shoulder. No bells, though.

I went looking for a ship's bell yesterday to add to the collection I was putting together today; I swear I saw one on the front door frame in the colonial section of town, to be used as a doorbell, I suppose. I never found it, though. Darn!

we had Tom Hatten in LA. he wore a sailor hat, had a large easel with paper and a crayon or something and he drew "squiggles" and we had to copy the squiggle then draw something from it or just watch him turn his into something. The best part of his show were the Popeye cartoons plus Betty Boop cartoons. I loved those. No bell, no sidekick tho'.

@California Girl: Except for the "squiggle" part, our Captain Bob taught kids to draw the same. In fact, later in his career, he came out with some instructional how-to-draw videos.

@All Other Commenters: I'd like to keep replying to everyone personally, but the problems with my arm are causing me to take frequent breaks, and avoid typing when I can. I will try to visit everyone's site today who's visited mine, just to return the favor.

I was just able to purchase via private sale a Captain Bob origional Drawing from 1964!!! I grew up adoring the man. I saw his show from the 70's produced by WCVB Boston in reruns in the 80's. They used to show it at 6:30AM on Sat and 6 AM on Sun but as it got into the 1990's the show got bumped earlier and earlier and I was unable to watch it as much as I would have liked till one day it was gone and I found myself an early 20-something year old working at the RR (the Bay Colony RR in Mass). I remember one morning going along the "Falmouth branch which skirted the coast of Buzzards Bay" and thinking "Gee that shack over there looks kinda like the little shack from the beginning of Captain Bob." It was either that day or the next that I got home from work and my mom told me that she had heard on the radio Captain Bob had passed away. I'll always remember his closing statement:"Till next time, and whatever yu do, be careful"

I Was Chosen BLOG OF THE MONTH ~ November 2011

I Won "The Goddess Award!"

Unfortunately, the "Everyday Goddess" site is no longer available, but here is the post that won the award for me!

What to Expect from This Blog, and from Me:

The Lair of the Silver Fox will contain anything I want it to contain. Sometimes I'll just ramble about my varied interests. Other times, if and when my muse cooperates, I may present you with stories, both fictional and non-fictional. (And just because something is supposedly "true," it doesn't mean that it's 100% true! You've been warned!) Some will be serialized in chapter form, while others will be one-part, stand-alone stories. Occasionally, there will be personal anecdotes, able to be called "stories" in a very loose sense. I may discuss unfinished or unpublished projects. Now and then, there will be articles containing opinions, or information, or anything else I want them to contain, and that includes occasional, somewhat feisty David'Z RantZ entries, which will be prominently labeled as such. I also have an occasional feature called Comical Wednesday! I am prone to writing tribute posts when prominent (or obscure) celebrities die. There might even be poems or songs. I will post items that have been published elsewhere, operating under the assumption that if you haven't seen it here, you haven't seen it at all.

The Lair of the Silver Fox will not always be what you expect it to be, or even -- sometimes -- what you want to see. But then again, if it were, it'd be your blog, and not mine, right?